Wednesday, October 30, 2013

You're Cordially Invited to an Ailment Party

RA is a systemic disease. It doesn't favor just a person's joints. It affect hair, skin, nails, and internal organs too. Because of this, a person with RA can experience more than just joint damage. according
to an article on health.com, a person with RA has double the risk for heart attack or stroke than a healthy person the same age. RA is considered as big of a risk factor for heart disease as smoking! Doctors think that the chronic inflammation that comes with having RA is a factor, but some medications that RA patients are given might play a role as well.

Did you know that people with RA are also more likely to get cancer? Again, while it's more likely because of the disease itself, the meds are also more likely to contribute. Chemo drugs are often prescribed for treatment because they can knock the immune system into remission. Actually, quite a few of the medications used to treat RA are meant for other things (the drug I'm on is given to travelers as an anti-malarial, though obviously I get higher doses of it). But back to my point: chemo drugs are known to cause cancer. Chemo, which is used to treat cancer, causes cancer. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma has been linked to RA, according to this same health.com, as well as leukemia, some forms of lymphoma, lung cancer, and melanoma.


Autoimmune diseases like to travel in packs too. For example, my mom has both RA and Lupus. I know of other people who have RA and Fibromyalgia. Sometimes people have RA and Multiple Sclerosis.

I could probably write a whole book on all of the medical problems that come with an autoimmune disease, like chronic infections, anemia, depression, lung issues, stomach bleeding, etc. I won't though, because I've made my point already. There are a lot of risk factors, and information on these risk factors is available everywhere on the Internet. Then people wonder why people with RA are paranoid about switching medications, going for routine doctor's visits, and the like. I believe this is good information to have available, definitely. But like I said in an earlier post, it's easy to become overwhelmed and dwell on how negative things can be someday. I have moments when I do that too, as positive as I try to be all of the time. It happens.


Health.com article: http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20485110.html

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